Scottish Labour Party Business: A Resilience Fund for CalMac Disruption

Michael Marra S6M-09463 That the Parliament instructs the Scottish Government to establish a resilience fund for businesses adversely affected by Caledonian MacBrayne disruption and withdrawal of services, utilising funds obtained from penalties imposed on Caledonian MacBrayne for breaches of its contract with Transport Scotland. Màiri McAllan S6M-09463.2 As an amendment to motion S6M-09463 in the name of Michael Marra (A Resilience Fund for CalMac Disruption), leave out from “instructs” to end and insert “recognises the significant impact that delays and disruption to ferry services have regrettably had on Scotland’s island communities and businesses; acknowledges that some island communities have been particularly badly affected, and also acknowledges the frustration felt by island communities; believes that the Scottish Government must continue to explore all practicable options to support island communities; agrees that the Scottish Government should redouble its efforts to work with operators and CMAL to improve reliability, resilience and confidence across networks and services, and address concerns that have been raised around CalMac’s route prioritisation matrix to ensure that it is reviewed, with input from communities, and that it considers the economic impact to fragile island communities; notes that all penalty deductions from CalMac made in relation to failures on the network are used to support resilience and help reduce disruption, for example, by helping to partly fund the cost of the charter of MV Alfred, and believes that accelerating the replacement of major vessels in the ferry fleet must be the priority in order to provide the ferry services that island communities need.” Graham Simpson S6M-09463.1 As an amendment to motion S6M-09463 in the name of Michael Marra (A Resilience Fund for CalMac Disruption), insert at end “; notes the anger expressed by islanders at repeated disruption, which is impacting on business and day-to-day life; calls on the Scottish Government to establish the fund, which should be permanent, without delay, and welcomes the commitment by CalMac to review its route scoring matrix.”